The Greenwood Community High School boys basketball team had no answer for Decatur Central’s quickness.
“Our biggest program was that game was an athletic contest, and we needed it to be a basketball game,” Greenwood coach Bruce Hensley said. “We got caught up as an athletic contest and they’re very athletic. That’s how they needed it to be played. We didn’t make it a basketball game.”
The result was the Hawks earning a 72-64 victory against the host Woodmen Friday night on the back end of a Mid-State Conference boys-girls doubleheader.
In the opening game, the Greenwood girls broke a 13-game losing streak by beating Decatur Central, 54-48. The Woodmen are 4-17 and finished Mid-State play with a 1-5 mark. Decatur Central’s record dropped to 6-14 and 0-5 in the league.
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryIn the boys game, the Hawks (5-8, 3-1) scored the first eight points before Greenwood (8-7, 1-3) called a timeout. Decatur Central took a 13-2 lead before Greenwood closed the deficit to 15-10 after one quarter. The Hawks led 29-24 at halftime.
“We couldn’t get any stops in the second half,” Hensley said. “We got the game tied after two possessions. We scored the next three or four possessions but so did they.”
Braydon Kincaid hit one free throw to close the deficit to 59-56, but the Hawks quickly rebuilt the lead to 62-56. Following two free throws by Eric Moenkhaus to slice the deficit to 62-58. Decatur Central regained control, pushing the lead to 69-61 with less than one minute left.
Moenkhaus, a 6-2 junior, led the Woodmen with 29 points, hitting four 3-pointers. Junior Jeffrey Reynolds added 14 points for the Woodmen.
The Hawks were 12 of 26 from the free-throw line while Greenwood were 16 of 24 from the line. However, the Hawks got some key offensive rebounds.
“We told them before the game we have to screen out, we have to defensive rebound,” Hensley said. “We didn’t screen out. They got offensive rebounds. Give them credit, they went after it. Offense wasn’t our problem. We’ve had a stretch where we’ve played six games in 14 days. We’re going to be a little tired; not an excuse. We haven’t had time to work on getting better as basketball players. We’ve just had time to prepare for the next game.”
The Woodmen will now have four days of practice before hosting Shelbyville on Friday.
Senior forward Gary Wright was high for the Hawks with 17 and junior forward Khiree Williams added 15 points.
In the girls game, Decatur Central didn’t score a basket until 1:15 left in the first quarter, trimming Greenwood’s lead to 10-4.
The Woodmen, who led 13-6 after one quarter, boosted the lead to 31-16 by halftime.
After Decatur Central closed the deficit to 49-46 on a basket by Mackinzey Cone, Greenwood’s Alex Kincaid sank two free throws to push the lead to 51-46 with 1:45 left. Bailee Taft then boosted the lead to seven. Cone scored to narrow it to 53-48, but could the Hawks could get no closer.
Sophomore guard Alex Kincaid led the Woodmen with 18 points, hitting three 3-pointers.
“Having to sit on the bench because of a lot of fouls, she shot well,” Greenwood coach Lee Taft said of Kincaid.
Kincaid, Leah Moore, Sarah DeCastro and Ashley Longshore each had four fouls for the Woodmen.
“The officials called a lot of fouls and missed a lot of travels,” Taft said. “The girls overcame a lot of fouls. I can’t say anything else; I’ll get in trouble.”
Fortunately for Greenwood, Hawks were just slightly over 50 percent from the line, making just 17 of 32. The Woodmen were 9 of 14 from the line.
Cone and Ajula Thatha each had 15 points for the Hawks. Thatha fouled out with 5:58 left in the fourth quarter.
The Greenwood girls close the regular season with a home game against Center Grove Tuesday night.
